An almost unbelievable article at Loseweek, as mainstream American media continues to do everything possible to undermine their own country—this time mixed with a hefty dose of Israel-hatred: The Wars Through Arab Eyes. (Hat tip: Allah.)

May 31 issue - The images were searing, and strikingly similar. Last Wednesday afternoon, as a thousand unarmed Palestinian protesters marched toward Israeli troops bulldozing houses at the southern end of the Gaza Strip, two Israeli tank shells and a helicopter missile exploded around them, killing eight people, half of them children. No sooner had the world absorbed pictures of the tragedy—ambulances shrieking through the streets of Rafah, shrapnel-ridden bodies—than news broke of new carnage a few hundred miles away. U.S. Apache helicopters fired on what locals said was a wedding party in an Iraqi village near the Syrian border, killing as many as 45 people. The American military said the target was a nest of insurgents, yet women, a well-known wedding singer and several members of his band were among the victims.

For the Arab world, the twin scenes of occupying armies wreaking havoc were a painful indication of American foreign policy in disarray. “Every day we see these terrible parallels—American tanks facing Iraqis, Israeli tanks facing Palestinians,” says Jihad Al Khazen, a columnist and the former editor in chief of Al Hayat, the Arabic-language daily in London. “For peace, for the future of the region, there is a sense among Arabs that everything has been brought to a dead end [by the White House].”

Last year’s invasion of Iraq and toppling of Saddam Hussein were supposed to bring prosperity and stability to the Middle East. “The road to Jerusalem,” the mantra went, led through Baghdad. Neoconservatives and other hawks within the Bush administration expected that the United States would win respect in the Arab world through a massive show of force, and that Israel would be more comfortable making peace with the Palestinians once Saddam was gone. Instead, the region now seems to be growing more violent—and America’s image in the Arab world has been badly tarnished. “Not only have we validated and emboldened our enemies, but we have shamed our friends,” says an embittered U.S. State Department official. “Arab moderates who trusted our ideals feel betrayed and abandoned.”

For more on the anti-Israel bias of Joshua Hammer, see here. Hammer was a nominee for the Dishonest Reporting Award for 2001.

In May 2001, Newsweek’s bureau chief in Israel, Joshua Hammer and his photographer, conducted an interview with Palestinian leaders in Gaza. As the interview was completed, the Palestinians informed Hammer and the photographer they were being held captive. After four hours, they were released. One would expect a kidnap victim to be traumatized and angry. But Hammer had only compliments for his Palestinian captors, as described in Newsweek:

“…Hammer says he never feared his captors would hurt him or Knight. ‘They never threatened us or pointed their guns at us,’ Hammer says. ‘They actually fed us one of the best meals I’ve eaten in Gaza.’”

In another report, Hammer wrote that most “Palestinians have given up hope of real political progress” as long as Sharon is in power. He questions if the Palestinians have the patience to wait for a “more moderate Israeli leader.” The fact is that Palestinians have already rejected far-reaching compromises offered by “a more moderate leader,” Ehud Barak.